


magical friend in a magical place

by Acadjonne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Disneyland, F/F, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 06:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11777796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acadjonne/pseuds/Acadjonne
Summary: Across the way from where Louise is sitting, there's a girl with a pretty epic head of hair. If she didn't know any better, she'd say it was that Elizabeth Hannah girl she follows on Instagram.Louise realizes she's staring and lowers her gaze back to her chicken. For almost a year now she's had a stupid crush on Elizabeth Hannah and she knows for a fact that even if that's her sitting a few hundred feet away, nothing will ever come of any sort of encounter they might have. Louise probably wouldn't be able to say much more than 'hi' without melting into a puddle.





	magical friend in a magical place

**Author's Note:**

> My first original work here on AO3. Wow.
> 
> Please keep in mind I've never been to Disneyland in California, only to Walt Disney World in Florida. I did look up maps and stuff to know what was where in the parks, and I did find some videos showing how some of the attractions went but mostly I'm just winging it.

Louise's decision to convince her aunt Moira to try the California Disneyland for once instead of the Florida resorts again was coming back to bite her in the ass, she decided quickly, and not just because suddenly the flight from Halifax went from a four hour ride to Orlando, to becoming a two hour Toronto flight connecting to a a four hour flight to Denver to another hour and a half flight to Orange County. There was also the fact that Louise liked some more thrill seeking rides sometimes, and aunt Moira didn't. That was going to become a problem at some point, because even though she was turning eighteen in less than three weeks and she had navigated through two separate cities alone before, aunt Moira didn't trust Louise alone on a Disney attraction any more exciting than Star Tours.

For the most part, it had started off okay. Familiar favourites found at both Disney World and Disneyland were among their first stops. Louise was happy to admit they'd already hit the Haunted Mansion twice, because she really did love it to pieces and she had really wanted a second look at the Pet Cemetery outside again. The fact that aunt Moira was partial to trying to find the bride's wedding ring was also a plus. Pirates of the Caribbean was next, because you can't just skip Pirates of the Caribbean while you're at a Disney park.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh was different here than in Florida, too, a bit darker but still enjoyable. Louise hadn't been on the Florida version in a while either. Splash Mountain, they'd be on last time they visited Magic Kingdom in Florida, though, and that was a staple in and of itself. Much like Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, Louise and aunt Moira could never skip that one, no matter how much aunt Moira grumbled that Louise hadn't even gotten wet.

By the time they hit Frontierland, it was nearing eleven, so they looked around for food, eventually deciding on the Stage Door cafe. There are tables nearby so they settle with their food there just before Louise's watch chimes noon.

"Fantasyland is next, right?" Louise asks as aunt Moira pulls out the map. She's got four in her hand, two in Japanese for Louise to bring back to her friends, one in french that Louise had gotten for a joke, and the English one she's been marking off destinations on. There are about three more maps somewhere in Louise's own bag too, once again in Japanese and English.

"Yep. We'll do Peter Pan first, and then Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." Answers aunt Moira.

"Can we do the teacups, too?" Louise hasn't been on the Alice in Wonderland teacups in years, since her grandmother Maggie was with them. Grandma Maggie stopped travelling five years ago and died three years ago.

"Aren't you a bit old for the teacups, Louise?" But aunt Moira knows she's lost already.

Across the way from where Louise is sitting, there's a girl with a pretty epic head of hair. If she didn't know any better, she'd say it's that Elizabeth Hannah girl she follows on Instagram. She knows that Elizabeth does in fact live in California, but she lives a few hours out of Anaheim and it's a Saturday in mid-March. Louise's March Break starts officially in two days but Elizabeth's spring break wouldn't be hitting for another three weeks or more.

Louise realizes she's staring and lowers her gaze back to her chicken. For almost a year now she's had a stupid crush on Elizabeth Hannah and she knows for a fact that even if that's her sitting a few hundred feet away, nothing will come of any sort of encounter they might have. From the looks of it, the girl is here with a few friends and what must be someone's father; best not bother her for a picture or something when there's a chance it isn't even her. Besides, Louise probably wouldn't be able to say much more than 'hi' without melting into a puddle.

She doesn't hear the footsteps coming towards them through the cacophony of people, but she does hear aunt Moira's confused "hi?"

And there's Elizabeth Hannah, smiling kindly at Louise. More like at Louise's hair, as luck would have it, because while Elizabeth has curls for days, Louise's undercut ponytail has been slowly but surely turning a calm magenta from a loud purple for about two months now.

"I like your hair," says Elizabeth, and that's all that needs to happen. Louise can work a thanks out of her mouth and then she'll have the compliment to use as crush fodder for months to come.

Instead of responding politely and logically, however, what actually comes out of Louise's mouth is, "I like your songs on Instagram."

 _Thank fuck_ she doesn't actually clap her hands over her mouth like she feels is necessary.

Elizabeth only smiles wider, eyes crinkling in a way that makes it seem like she's squinting at Louise. "Thanks! I usually don't get recognized for those. If anyone on the streets knows who I am it's usually because of those music videos I was in as a kid."

Louise knows what she's talking about. "I've seen them," she admits. "I really like that band, actually. I can play a few of their songs; I'm actually learning both of the songs you were in."

Elizabeth takes one of the empty chairs at Louise and aunt Moira's table, the one closest to Louise. She's about to say something, ask about Elizabeth's group, but she waves them over before Louise has a chance. They sit down at the table nearest Louise and aunt Moira's, which she could swear was just occupied last time she blinked.

"What do you play?" Elizabeth asks, and she looks so genuinely earnest about it, like she actually wants to know. _Louise_ wants to know if she's having a fever dream induced by heatstroke or something.

"Bass, mostly," she answers awkwardly, "but I know a bit on piano too. Only one full song, but bits and pieces of others."

"You can read music?"

"No. Well. Tabs, yeah. But I can't read for piano. I'm mostly by ear."

"Me too," says Elizabeth, but Louise already knew that.

Eventually, Louise finishes her lunch. Elizabeth eats faster than she does even though she does most of the talking, but even though Louise is the last of both groups to finish, Elizabeth seems intent on waiting for her. Aunt Moira stays almost too close behind Louise as she walked alongside Elizabeth towards Fantasyland.

"Does you aunt go on any of the rides, or does she just wait for you?"

"She goes on the tamer ones, but I pretty much follow her. The most exciting thing I've done all day was probably Splash Mountain, but that's just because we've done that before." Louise explains.

"So you haven't been on any of the wilder rides? The Matterhorn or anything?" Elizabeth asks. Louise shakes her head.

"We didn't get that far into the park yet, but aunt Moira wouldn't let me on alone anyways. At this point I'm doubting I'll get onto Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin either. If I had a friend it would be different."

"I can be your friend, if you want." Louise wants to say a million things. Ask, _why me? Why not literally anyone else?_ She doesn't want to seem rude, but things like this just don't happen to her. For months she'd told any of her friends who would listen about how she'd give anything to even just be friends with Elizabeth, and now after an hour's conversation over chicken strips it's just being offered like it's nothing.

Of all the things that Louise could say, she settles on, "I don't want to impose."

"You wouldn't be," assures Elizabeth. "You're cool, I'd like to go one rides with you."

"And your friends won't mind?"

"Nah, it's fine."

* * *

They end up on Peter Pan's Flight first, where the two groups get separated. Elizabeth ends up riding with a lone stranger at the back of one of the ships and Louise and aunt Moira end up at the front of the next. They catch up with Elizabeth's group at the ride's exit, though, and head for Mr. Toad next.

Elizabeth ends up on one end up the bench for Mr. Toad, with aunt Moira in the middle and Louise on the other side. Louise is too mesmerized by the beautiful colours in the ride to mind too much.

Their third stop is the teacups, and this time it's just Elizabeth and Louise. Elizabeth likes to spin their teacup around as much as she can, which leaves them both giggling and dizzy by the time they get off. Louise bounces on her toes to try to curb the dizziness without outright jumping, but it doesn't work that well. She gives a single good leap upwards before giving up and letting her vertigo even itself out. Elizabeth catches back up to everyone else faster than Louise does, somehow.

Alice in Wonderland separates them again, although they do get a good half-hour debate over which Butch Hartman show was better while in line. Louise claims it's Danny Phantom, but Elizabeth says Fairly Odd Parents. Aunt Moira tries to keep up but gets lost after Louise brings up crossovers and Easter eggs.

Finally, they walk towards the Matterhorn Bobsleds. They get in line on the Fantasyland side, because once they get off it'll be straight to It's A Small World and then Toontown, but aunt Moira wanders off to go sit down nearby the exit.

The carts in the Matterhorn are single riders, each holding three people and with two carts connected together to hold six people per go. A lone rider ends up in the first row of the carts, with Louise second and Elizabeth third, followed by her two friends and their adult in the last three rows. The lone rider in front of Louise is told to take off their hat, and while the cast member assures Louise that she can keep her glasses, she takes them off anyways. She's almost lost them before on rides like Big Thunder Mountain and even on the teacups earlier, so she'd rather be sure they're safe than leave it to chance.

"And now I'm blind," Louise jokes. Elizabeth laughs.

"You'll be fine," she tells Louise, and then they're off.

At first, it's dark, but not too fast and pretty smooth. Eventually, it lightens up a bit, but Louise totally _doesn't_ scream when she sees the yeti, no matter what anyone says. After that point though, it's pretty shaky, and she's glad she took off her glasses or she'd lose those, or her nose stud, or both.

Elizabeth laughs when Louise tells her this, after they've gotten off the Matterhorn and are making their way towards It's A Small World.

"Don't laugh! That hurts when that happens, you of all people should know that!" Louise pointedly gestures to Elizabeth's own silver nose ring.

"Yeah, which is why I have the ring in the first place." Elizabeth smirks.

"And I'd have one too, but I actually have no idea how to put one in," Louise admits.

"I wouldn't mind showing you." Elizabeth seems genuine but Louise doesn't want to get her hopes up. She just nods.

On It's A Small World, Elizabeth ends up in the middle, with aunt Moira to the far side and Louise closest to the platform. They point out cute little dolls to each other while aunt Moira occasionally gives them fun facts, and Louise, as usual, laments the lack of Acadian dolls.

"They aren't there because it's not a country," aunt Moira reminds her, as she always does.

"I know," admits Louise, as she always does, "but it _used_ to be. That's gotta count. Besides, the Baie En Joie has even danced at Disney before!"

Elizabeth doesn't get it, but she doesn't ask either. Louise doesn't know whether to be disappointed or not, until she realizes that she and aunt Moira weren't even speaking English to be begin with. Elizabeth probably didn't even understand most of what they'd said.

"Sorry," Louise says. Elizabeth shakes her head.

"It's fine. I didn't know you spoke French."

"Something like that."

They end up eating at Daisy's Diner in Toontown, but since Louise doesn't actually like pizza, she gets a hot dog at Pluto's Dog House instead. She's sure to offer the others some of her chips, though, and aunt Moira takes about half of them anyways. Elizabeth also takes a few, but sticks mostly to her pizza.

The Car Toon Spin is fun, especially since Louise already knows from the teacups that Elizabeth loves to spin. Between the two of them, they spin circles around the ride, stopping only to curb a bit of dizziness whenever Louise spots the Who Framed Roger Rabbit characters like Jessica and Roger himself. Elizabeth also surprises Louise by quoting Hum Hallelujah lyrics at her in the Bullina's China Shop section of the ride, making them both laugh.

At Tomorrowland, their first stop is the Star Wars launch bay, and Louise is quick to line up for pictures with the characters. The Chewbacca line moves by about four people every ten minutes, or so it seems, but at the same time it seems like Louise blinks and suddenly she and aunt Moira are taking pictures with Chewie. The smile on her face is not only genuine, but doesn't want to go away.

Louise steps back to watch Elizabeth and her friends take their pictures, first individually and then as a group. She almost wants to ask Elizabeth if she can join her for a picture, but doesn't. Next, they all head for Kylo Ren.

It's almost too funny as the cast member by the door keeps making references to the original trilogy to aunt Moira, asking if they know Jar Jar Binks and how many times they've been to Naboo. The guy knows Louise gets it, and keeps going with her, until he has to go check to see if their groups can go in yet. Aunt Moira turns to look pointedly at Louise.

"He wasn't making fun of me, was he?" She asks. Louise shakes her head, laughing.

"No, I'll explain later."

Meeting Kylo Ren is intimidating, to say the least. In her Star Wars patterned dress, Chewbacca and the cast members found her cute, but she's got Luke and Leia all over her torso and keeps expecting Kylo to say something. He asks her about the First Order though, and she answers as best she can, saluting when she feels is necessary and calling him "sir". They pose for a photo where she tries to imitate his pose and fails. Aunt Moira doesn't join the photos this time.

Trying to explain the original Star Wars trilogy to someone who's never seen Star Wars is hard, and eventually Louise gives up, although aunt Moira knows Naboo is a planet and Jar Jar is an annoying character so she knows she's got some points across. Elizabeth is almost dragging Louise towards Space Mountain now though, so aunt Moira lets them go and they run towards the line like little kids.

It's while in line for Space Mountain that Louise realizes she has wifi, so she pulls out her phone and checks her notifications. Mostly it's just people reblogging or liking posts on Tumblr, but she's got two Snapchats which she answers by zooming in on her own eye and hitting send.

"Hey, you have Snapchat?" Elizabeth asks, once she realizes what Louise is doing. Louise nods. "What's your username?"

Louise hands Elizabeth her phone and they trade, adding themselves on each other' accounts before swapping back. Elizabeth then leans over and takes a picture of them, sending it to Louise and adding it to her own story. Louise smiles and does the same, adding stupid stickers and taking her time decorating the picture. By then, Elizabeth has also gotten Louise's Instagram and Twitter handles and is following her back and going through her posts. Every time she likes one of Louise's tweets, she gets a notification.

Louise takes off her glasses again for Space Mountain once they get on, and Elizabeth asks her jokingly how many fingers she's holding up. Louise doesn't dignify that with a response, simply squints jokingly at the other girl. They laugh as the ride starts up.

As soon as they get off, Louise runs over to the picture counter to get a look at the photo they took. She and Elizabeth are entirely too visible in the back of their cart, Elizabeth with her halo of curls and Louise's bright colours to the immediate left. She doesn't even think about digging out her wallet to buy a copy, though aunt Moira scowls at her as she hands it over for safe keeping. Elizabeth doesn't seem to hesitate buying a copy of the picture either, though that's probably because of the comedically wide scream Louise got captured with in the image.

They hit Star Tours twice, because the first time Louise accidentally gets separated from the group when she pauses too long reading departure times on the display in the queue. Aunt Moira is annoyed at that, and Louise apologizes a few times, but she doesn't mind herself too much. She got to be the spy on her lone trip, which was the coolest thing ever, she decides.

Aunt Moira decided she might as well do Star Tours once while they were there, so the second time around, the entire group of six ends up together, taking up most of a row. They're at the front this time, so none of them end up as the spy, although this time they end up visiting not only Jakku but also to Naboo, with a hologram message from Leia.

By the time they get off Star Tours, it's about seven thirty. They still have some time before Elizabeth and her friends need to leave, because they're staying off-resort and need to drive back home tomorrow. Since it turns out they hadn't been to New Orleans Square yet, one of Elizabeth's friends suggest the Haunted Mansion. Louise is all too eager to agree.

The line for the Mansion isn't overly long, about fifteen minutes, so Louise and Elizabeth get to talk some more, as if they haven't been doing that all day.

"Hey," says Elizabeth, "can I see your phone?"

"Uh, sure?" Louise hands it over. Elizabeth gives Louise her own phone, already unlocked and with the contacts app pulled up, a blank form ready to be filled.

"Can you unlock it for me?"

Louise isn't sure whether or not to question this, so she just takes her phone back to unlock it and passes it to Elizabeth again. As soon as she's got it, Elizabeth exits out of Snapchat and begins look through Louise's apps.

"What are you looking for," asks Louise.

"Your contacts. I wanna give you my phone number."

Oh. "I, um. I'm from Canada."

Elizabeth deflates a bit. "Can't you talk to people from America?"

"I can text, I think. I can't call, though."

"Oh, well do you have FaceTime?"

"I. Yeah, why?"

Finally, Elizabeth finds Louise's contact apps, and starts putting in her information. Her cell phone number, an email address, and a URL. Louise follows suit, marking down her cell number and her good email, and as an afterthought, adds her birthday too.

"My FaceTime is linked to my email but you can text me if you want to," says Elizabeth.

"What's the URL then?"

"My Tumblr. I saw you had the app."

"Oh. Thanks."

The two part ways after the ride is over, but somehow, Louise manages to have enough courage to ask for a hug.

\-----

Louise and aunt Moira get back to their room just after nine, after visiting a few more places around the park.

Louise hadn't checked her phone since she got off the Haunted Mansion with Elizabeth, so she's got a few Snapchats to check. One is from her friend Sophie, who knows well of Louise's little crush. It's evident that it was taken in total darkness, which isn't surprising since it's probably morning in Europe. The only thing visible in the picture is a little winking face, but Louise can feel Sophie being all smug just from the picture alone. The other three Snapchats are streaks, two from her friends back home and one from her cousin. Louise replies to all three with a blurry picture of aunt Moira in the mirror.

Exiting out of Snapchat again, Louise is about to switch to Tumblr to try to find Elizabeth's blog when she gets an Instagram notification.

**[lightning44] elizabeth.hannah has tagged you in a photo**

Louise clicks the notification.

It's a set of pictures, about six of them, taken at various points throughout the day, including the Snapchat selfies from earlier and a picture of the Space Mountain photo. Two are of Elizabeth and her friends with Chewbacca and Kylo Ren. One picture is of Elizabeth hugging Louise outside the Haunted Mansion, and then there's one of only Louise, back facing the camera and hair swaying slightly. The caption at the bottom of the photos is " _magical friend in a magical place_ ".

Louise is dumbstruck for a few minutes. This can't be real. She knows it is, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like a dream. She brings a finger up to her ear and one of the studs on her bottom left earring jabs uncomfortably into her bass callus. Okay, it's real, then.

Louise likes the photo, and after a moment of thought, comments.

_it was nice meeting you today!_

A few moments later, her phone vibrates.

**_How much longer will you be in California?_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment below, feedback is always appreciated! Thank you for you time and attention.


End file.
